Saturday, March 3, 2012

Here's the return of the Jok....errr...The Bull's-Eye, to take revenge on Green Arrow and Speedy.

A nifty ad for the new TOMAHAWK feature. TOMAHAWK would eventually replace Robin as cover feature in STAR-SPANGLED and was even given his own title! Perhaps due to the fifties popularity of Disney's DAVY CROCKETT, the TOMAHAWK book had enough momentum to carry it up until 1970.

Friday, March 2, 2012

This issue, Superboy meets Jaguar Boy. Was DC using this as what they call a back door pilot? Jungle comics were starting to come in vogue with the ever-popular Tarzan and Sheena joined by Nyoka and soon many, many more. Maybe DC was looking for their own jungle character? If so, as far as I know, Jaguar Boy did not return.

Below is an ad for one of my personal favorite series from this period--Howie Post's JIMMINY AND THE MAGIC BOOK. He was in MORE FUN COMICS and later WORLD'S FINEST. Wish DC would do a paperback reprint of all the Jimminy stories.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Reversed for the splash panel, this fun Superboy cover goes to a clever story about a spelling contest.

LITTLE ARTHUR? Not the same as the later SUGAR & SPIKE character, this is a single page filler by Phil Berube, one of the great sports cartoonists, Berube started doing filler like this in 1945 and continued until about 1950.

"Quagga?" Man, they're really pushing this, aren't they?

After some stylish 2/3 splashes for he three above series, we return to the big wasted space GA logo for this one.

At least it has another weird villain--this one a sharp-nosed, bird-based criminal. It's beginning to look like the GREEN ARROW scripters are recycling old BATMAN stories in more ways than one.

With BATMAN strips running in DETECTIVE, BATMAN and WORLD'S FINEST, Robin got his chance here with the start of a long-running solo series in STAR-SPANGLED COMICS. Well...it was supposed to be solo. After a while, even though the mostly Jim Mooney-drawn strip still kept the same title, Batman's appearances became more and more frequent.

Peter Porkchops would later be co-opted by Roy Thomas as one of his odder Golden Age revivals, this one in CAPTAIN CARROT AND HIS AMAZING ZOO CREW, co-created with Scott Shaw! Peter became the superhero, Pig Iron.

I'm sorry, what? Green Arrow and Speedy go up against a villain referred to as "The Clown Prince of Crime,"he has a white face, a pointed nose and a pointed chin, wild, oddly colored hair, and he's called...The Bull's Eye. Seriously??!! Does the Joker know about this fellow?

CELEBRATING ADVENTURE COMICS!

NEW COMICS was the first real comic book from National Allied Publications, the comics publisher that would become DC. It debuted in the Autumn of 1935. Eventually it would become NEW ADVENTURE COMICS and finally simply ADVENTURE COMICS. In a long and storied history lasting nearly fifty years, the title would showcase a diverse and wondrous list of features from MANHUNTER and SUPERBOY to THE LEGION OF SUPERHEROES, THE BLACK ORCHID and THE SPECTRE. I even had MY first letter published in an issue in 1968! Here we will take a look at one issue of ADVENTURE COMICS, in order, every single day...all the way through the original run's end in 1983.

Just SOME of the cast of ADVENTURE COMICS!

About Me

First published in 1968 (I was 9!), I have been writing professionally part-time for more than two decades. I have been freelancing for various authors, editors and publishers for the past three years on the behind-the-scenes tasks of writing.